We’re well into SMS 2007 with two days of the second week gone already. John Perry arrived last night and will be giving masterclasses to some privileged piano students, as well as performing in UCH next Saturday 4th August at 2.00pm. In the office we’re engrossed in organising everything from accommodation, to meals and transport for all the participants and bracing ourselves for the large ingress of people this coming weekend for the Instrumental programme.

I’m also having to do my own work, and am now facing into at least a couple of hours intense programming before I can call it a day.

After a somewhat pleasant morning, it has now been pissing rain straight down from a leaden sky for the last 2 hours and shows little sign of a let-up.

Conversely, they are suffering from record heat in Eastern Europe. While in the southern half of Spain, the thermometre has gone above 45°C for the first time this Summer - which is normal in that part of the world. We have a few Spaniards coming over to the Summer Music on the Shannon festival again this year. They will be absolutely delighted with our rain and pleasantly cool temperatures, as they always are!

It’s Friday night, and week 1 of SMS 2007 is over, and boy! am I glad it’s Friday.

Looking forward to the weekend, not that I don’t have to work - I have to do some programming tomorrow afternoon. But at least I don’t have to go to Limerick again until Monday morning.

The Summer, such as it is, is flying by - there are only 4 days left in July! That’s just 4 days of Summer left by the Celtic calendar. Whatever anybody says, I can smell the change of season as soon as August comes on the scene. There is a definite change of season in Ireland, though not in any other country I’ve ever been to.

Today proved to be more productive at SMS 2007. We got next week’s accommodation sorted, and made a start on that of week 3. With over a hundred people coming in week 3, sorting them into rooms to their liking can be a bit of a nightmare.

I had been hoping that the slipway from Ennis onto the by-pass would be complete by the end of the month, as that would have meant not having to go through Clarecastle morning and evening. Not a hope in hell that it’ll be finished for another 3-4 weeks I’d venture judging by the state of stretch of slipway between the new roundabout in Clarecastle and the actual bypass. This project was supposed to have been completed last January - more than 6 months ago. Why aren’t GAMA paying exhorbitant fines for being so far behind schedule I’d like to know!

After a glorious day yesterday - the first without rain for a month and a half! - and a nice morning this morning, it’s back to spilling rain and gloom once more. It was too good to last I suppose

Day 2 of SMS is down and I’m very tired - so tired I can’t bring myself to work any more, so I’m calling it quits for the day.

The first day of Summer Music on the Shannon 2007 has passed without incident. It was a very early start for us as we had to get up at 6.30 am to be in UCH by 8.00 am for registration of the first week’s Opera students and faculty. I have a nicer office this year than ever before, as there is more natural light. We didn’t get back home until 6.30 pm when I cooked dinner.

I now have to do at least an hour’s work on this shopping cart I’m building, which I don’t relish as I feel quite tired, and I have to be up early again tomorrow. I would much prefer to be dozing off in front of the TV.

I’m one year older according to the calendar, but in reality I’m not really. It is an interesting phenomenon how people react to the mounting number count of their years on this planet. Most, but not all, of them seem to cringe at the prospect of another unit being added to the total that is the number of birthdays since their first. And the birthdays that end in 0 (zero) seem to take on an added significance for some reason - that is those after 21, because up to then it seems to go 7 (seven), 13 (thirteen), 18 (eighteen), 21 (twenty-one). A curious phenomenon indeed!

Well, I celebrated my 49th birthday yesterday, and did it in style. Together with my partner/spouse/wife (choose whichever you’re comfortable with) and two offspring (my 15 year old daughter is less than enamoured with the label of “child”) went to see the latest Harry Potter film, The Order of the Phoenix. Then it was off to the swimming pool for an hour where my son had his last swimming lesson. Apart from splashing too much, and not concentrating enough, he’s doing fine! Then we nipped back to base to install the weekly shopping in the fridge and cupboards before going out again for dinner - at the Kasturi Restaurant in Ennis. We had a fine meal in pleasant surroundings, and this time I successfully resisted the temptation to eat too much!

All in all a very enjoyable day - I didn’t even turn on a computer or think of checking my e-mail or web stats! And if you’re wondering what I thought of the Harry Potter film, wonder no more - it was a fine piece of entertainment: I was lost in another world for a couple of hours, which is after all why I went. I wouldn’t want to see it again - once is plenty. So there you have it.

Today is the 38th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon - 20 July 1969! That is if you believe that man did indeed land on the moon on that date. Conspiracy theorists believe that it was all a sham, that Neil Amstrong uttered his famous “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” in a tent in the Arizona desert and not on the Sea of Tranquility a quarter of a million miles away. Personally, I’m open to suggestion on this one, as I have stumbled across some questions that seem to cast doubt on the veracity of the moon landing. The one that sticks in the memory is how come the flag of the United States was fluttering when there is no wind on the moon.

In any case, I will never forget the event - as I celebrated my 11th birthday on the 21st July 1969, the day when Neil Amstrong is reputed to have stepped on the surface of our only moon. I remember the day very well - it was a glorious summer’s day with not a cloud in the sky (all too infrequent nowadays). I had just got Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe for my birthday from one of my aunt nuns, and was avidly reading it out the back in the sun. My mother called me in to witness the immortal moment on our Black and White TV.

Driving back from Ennis this afternoon, I heard an item on RTE Radio One on the Camara Project, which accepts computer equipment from companies and individuals, refurbishes it and sends it to schools and other educational institutions in Africa which is in dire need of IT equipment and know-how.

The minimum requirements for the computer equipment is a PIII (Pentium 3 chip) PC - they don’t accept MACs because these are difficult to maintain and fix in Africa. First thing they do is wipe the Hard Drive completely to guarantee that the old data cannot be retrieved in future. Then they install a Linux-based Operating System (long live Tux!), and some educational programs including a HIV/AIDS awareness program. The refurbished machines are then shipped out to several countries in Africa, where they are put to excellent use.
This strikes me as a tremendous project as it avoids perfectly good computer equipment being dumped and contaminating the environment, and in the process it recycles the equipment so it can be used in health and education in Africa. So if you are upgrading your computer equipment don’t just dump it - visit the Camara website. Or just send them a donation.

I did my quarterly visit to the local dump in Inagh this morning so I can relax until October when it is my turn again. Two next door neighbours and I take it in turns to take all our rubbish (garbage to those of you who speak North American English) every month, which is very handy as it costs us no more than €120 per annuum. We’ve had this arrangement in place for several years now, ever since the then rubbish collection company that was servicing the area refused to come down our road to take take our rubbish. They did us a big favour really, as it would cost each of our households a minimum of €300 p.a. if they had signed us up to their service.